Technology | Media | Telecommunications

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

10 Billion Mobile Coupons will be Redeemed in 2013

The number of discount coupons redeemed through mobile phones and media tablet devices is expected to reach 10 billion this year -- that's up by more than 50 percent on last year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research.

Juniper believes that innovative retailers are increasingly seeking to offer mobile as a delivery channel -- both as a means of driving in-store retail and to enhance consumer engagement and retention.

It pointed out that while mobile still accounted for a comparatively low volume of coupons issued, retailers had been encouraged by the markedly higher average redemption rate of mobile coupons (approx 10 percent) when compared to traditional print media and PC coupons (typically 1 percent or less).

Furthermore, the study findings showed that mobile couponing offered retailers the opportunity to marry their digital and physical assets.

"While we’ve heard that online retail is killing the High Street -- witness United Retail filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. and the recent administrations of Jessop’s and Blockbuster in the UK -- mobile offers a means of engaging with the consumer at every point in the retail life-cycle, from product discovery to product purchase," said Dr Windsor Holden, research director at Juniper Research.

However, their market study report stressed that it was critical for retailers to ensure that such coupons had a time-based element -- noting that a number of offers had gone unintentionally viral, leading to brands being unable to service the demand for their products.

Other key findings from the market study include:

Apple’s recent high-profile launch of Passbook is expected to act as a catalyst to both coupon deployments and adoption.

Retailer reluctance to upgrade POS (Point of Sale) terminals for authentication and redemption is creating a bottleneck, effectively suppressing the deployment of mobile coupons.